Friday 29 August 2014

Wallpapered Wardrobes

With the bank holiday weekend proving to be a wash out the hard work spent doing DIY didn't seem to bad. I think if the sun was shining outside then it would have been a different story. With our samples painted and our final colour choice chosen it was now time to crack on with getting the walls coated. 
Paint test pots
The ceiling still needs a little attention and a few holes filled before this can be painted and as you can see on the below image to the left our light switch is currently sitting on this wall as we are waiting for the electrician to safely move this to another wall. Once this is done and the hole filled the walls and ceiling can have their final coats of paint. 
Painted bedroom walls
Whilst the walls are now in a state of limbo our attention moves back onto working on the wardrobes and my grand idea of wallpapering the insides. Although when the doors are fitted on the wardrobes and they are filled with clothes you will barely see the print but I was addement that this was something that I really wanted. We aren't having a feature wall in this bedroom or a feature colour scheme as want to keep the colours in neutrals and browns so having a little pop of colour when you open the wardrobe seemed like a great idea. 
My partner doing the wallpapering and matching up the prints in the small sections might disagree that this is a good idea but as the sections start to come to life we both absolutely love it and can't wait to get them finished and get the clothes in and the doors on. 
Wallpapered wardrobes

Wallpapered wardrobe
With another section complete the rails can now go back into the wardrobe and another job is ticked off the list of the grand home renovation project. 
Wallpapered wardrobe interior


Thursday 28 August 2014

Picking the wrong colour paint

After several hours at the weekend spent in Homebase and much deliberating, we had finally agreed on the colour of paint for a master bedroom. With the house renovations into their second year and only having temporary bedroom space up until now getting our master bedroom perfect is an exciting challenge and choosing the paint colour is very important. With colour guide books with the paint's in use and rows of tins in front of us we narrow down the choices and there was a clear winner for our paint. We chose to use Homebase Home Of Colour in a shade called 'Cosy Mocha' The colour in the guide book looked a nice neutral grey. The colour on the tin was a nice neutral grey, the colour on the website was also a nice neutral grey. 
Homebase Home OF Colour 'Cosy Mocha' Paint
Image from http://www.homebase.co.uk/

But after painting just one wall this pink tinged wall was staring back at me and i hated it. Calling in my other half to get his opinion he immediately hated it too and the decision to repaint it was easily decided. The problem is we have gloss cream wardrobe doors on order and a pink/grey wall is not the neutral natural colour we chose to go with them. 

Wrong colour paint on the walls

Homebase cosy mocha paint

I understand that different paints can look different colours in different shades of light so we tried looking at the wall with the light off in just natural light. We even changed the light bulb to a white light rather than a warm light but there was no getting away from the fact that this colour had to many tones of pink in the paint that we just didn't want.

Rather than agreeing on another colour in the shop we decided we would actually buy some test pots this time to sample the colours in the room to avoid making the same mistake again. Although we maybe should have done this in the first place we had managed to get the paint colours correct first time on the whole of the downstairs of the house and thought the luck might continue upstairs.

Now that we had seen how awful this colour was we even started to think out of the box slightly more and get some samples of colours that we hadn't even contemplated before and even opted for a green! The green looked lovely on the tin and were really tempted to just go for it and buy it there and then, but once bitten, twice as shy. We were glad we got the sample on the wall as it dried a lot darker than the sample on the tin suggested and very swiftly decided against it.
Homebase Camouflage paint
Image from http://www.homebase.co.uk/
Homebase paint samples

With samples all coming up differently to what was on the tins we ended up choosing the colour 'Barely Haze' which was actually our wildcard choice, this was the colour neither of us really liked in the shop but thought we would take a punt on and as an outside choice that we both knew wouldn't work. As the colours were coming up so differently to what was on the tins 'Barely Haze' turned out to be the neutral colour that we were looking for.

The colour looked like it would work well with the sample from the gloss doors as well as the wallpaper choice for the insides of the wardrobes. so the following day it was back to Homebase to take the pink paint back and exchange for our new colour choice before screaming back and cracking on with the painting to finally make the most of the long weekend working on the house.
Mood board for our bedroom

Thursday 21 August 2014

The bedroom gets a first coat of paint, Let the decorating begin

With the plasterer paying us a visit last week the three exposed walls in the bedroom were now freshly plastered and drying beautifully and so we were able to give the room it's first lick of paint and finally start to see what the bedroom will look like moving forwards. Below is a shot of the built in wardrobe made from moving the wall back into the bedroom behind it. All the exposed panels have been given an undercoat, the backs and sides to the wardrobe will have wallpapered backs and sides to give a little bit of our personality to the custom built wardrobe. 
Custom built wardrobe

Painting the bedroom
Although the old wardrobe is still in the middle of the room with clothes in it until they can be moved into their new home we are managing to work around it and get the first coat of painting done in the room. 
Decorating the bedroom
Now just to let the paint dry and we'll be onto the next coat and will start to see the bedroom taking it's final shape. After nearly two years since we bought the dilapidated property we can not wait to have a beautiful bedroom to sleep in. 
I'll keep you posted on the progress over the bank holiday weekend but hoping that if the paint ever arrives from Homebase we will be able to crack on. Yes we made the mistake of ordering paint from Homebase which was supposedly delivered on the 12th of August but no sign of it yet! You live and learn eh!


Friday 15 August 2014

Grand Designs continue on our bedroom

As the time ticks by progress has slowed down over the last few months of the house renovation and although the downstairs is 90% complete the upstairs is proving quite a challenge. The savings and the loans that we took out 18 months ago have since run out and the only way to continue with the build is to do a little bit each month. 

With the weather in Cornwall being amazing we have spent some time at the beach and in the sea and efforts haven't been 100% on the house but we've the two year anniversary approaching of being first time home owners we are putting the pressure on to have a finished bedroom for our 2 year houseaversary. 

Plaster Boarding the bedroom
Here you can see that the walls are being lined with new plasterboard, the old walls were very wonky and old and after a few wall repairs the old plasterboard was ripped away and the new installed. To see how the bedroom looked before the new walls went in you can see the pictures here.
Fitting a door lining in the bedroom
A new door lining is hand made by my partner and inserted ready for a new door to be fitted. 
Plasterboarded bedroom

Plaster boarded bedroom

Plaster boarded bedroom
The room was then fully plaster boarded, except the ceiling as this was in good condition so will just need repainting saving us a bit of cash. You can see behind the wardrobe in the above image that we have also built a full width in built wardrobe. This new wardrobe will replace all the wardrobes and chests of draws in the bedroom creating more space around the bed.
plastered bedroom

plastered bedroom
Then just two days ago we have had a visit from our plasterer who has plastered the remaining three walls in the bedroom and this has transformed the place. The next job is to get the paint brushes and rollers out and start working hard on decorating the bedroom. The new electrics for the wall lights and sockets are in place, the radiator position has been moved and we are ready for the final push. With bank holiday weekend approaching we have a plan for one person to work on painting the in built wardrobe and the other person to work on painting the walls and after that it will hopefully be a simply case of adding wardrobe doors, handles and getting our clothes into the bedroom. 

As we currently have our clothes spread between the other two bedrooms and the old bedroom furniture storing our clothes in the living room getting this room complete will be a massive step forward and hopefully after living here nearly two years we will finally have a lovely bedroom to sleep in. 

But before we move in.... we will be getting carpet fitted :@) Although we will have to wait until we have done all the decorating and wait for another packet of wages but the thought of having carpet for the first time in two years is very exciting indeed and will certainly make me paint a lot faster!